Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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Last week I attended Build Windows conference and have been spending a considerable amount of time thinking how things have changed for developers.
The initial reaction from most people was “Oh My God” with all the focus on WinRT and Metro UI and little mention of .Net, Silverlight, WPF, etc. You could almost feel the equal parts panic and excitement racing through the crowd.
I was fortunate enough to have brought along my “Keep Calm and Carry On” T-Shirt to Anaheim. I wore it on Wednesday as it seemed to sum up my feelings on the topic.
1. .Net didn’t die. Nor did Silverlight, WPF, etc. In fact, there were some great new features introduced.
2. Desktop Applications didn’t die. Even during one of the general sessions, they stressed that an application like PhotoShop probably will continue to exist as a desktop application.
3. WinRT/Metro are new, but familiar for developers. I like the fact that my existing C# and XAML skills (as limited as they might be) are still relevant on the new touch-centric platform. I completely understand why WinRT has been implemented as native code. This stuff needs to run effectively and efficiently on a low power device.
4. THIS IS A DEVELOPER PREVIEW. I suspect we will see a lot of improvement in both the stability and the experience moving forward.
So, what is my message to my developers upon return from Build?
1. Check out the developer preview, but don’t assume that Windows 8 will end up exactly like this.
2. Investigate and experiment with Metro UI applications. Heck, let’s get some queued up for when that app store opens up!! There are many applications that will be great candidates to take advantage of the Metro / touch centric UI. And, hey, it’s still using the languages we know and love (as opposed to the other touch platforms).
3. Don’t change what you are doing, or the advice you are giving on Line of Business applications. The majority of the type of development we do won’t change in Windows 8. We primarily develop complex line of business applications with functionally rich user interfaces. This type of application likely doesn’t directly translate to Metro UI. DO, however, consider Metro UI as an alternate, mobile/touch-friendly user experience for you applications. This is no different than what we might do today with an iPad or Android user experience.
I see Windows 8 as ‘virtually’ two operating systems that share a kernel. The Metro experience which will be dominant on slate type devices, and the desktop mode which will be dominant within most workplaces. I think we will see some improvements to help us stay in one context or the other and not have the awkward switching where I find myself in a Metro UI application with my mouse and keyboard (and no touch screen) or on the desktop when I’m on a slate with my fat fingers. If Microsoft can provide some profile configuration so that I can control which is my preferred style per device or in different contexts (slate docked or not) then I think I’ll quite enjoy this new Windows.
In short, my take on Windows 8 is “Stay Calm and Carry On”. Don’t get paralyzed by the new things and continue to deliver the best value you can with the tools at your disposal. Continue to move your software architectures forward and envision MANY usage scenarios for you applications on different devices and form factors including, but not limited to MetroUI.
Friday, August 19, 2011
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The August ‘11 TFS Power Tools are ready for download.
Brian Harry has a good summary of the update here.
The big visible changes are:
1. The ability to use the shell extensions against a TFS not on the same domain as your PC. You now get a credentials prompt.
2. Work Item Search!! The Work Item Tracking toolbar now contains a search box. I know my friend and fellow MVP Etienne Tremblay has been asking for this for about 5 years!
3. Rollback IN THE UI!! TFS 2010 introduced rollback. However, you had to use the command line to do it. Due to this I know many people that didn’t even know it existed. The Power Tools now add this capability right into the Source Control Explorer or Version History window.
There are a bunch of other things you can look up in Brian’s blog.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab it HERE!
Technorati Tags:
VS 2010,
TFS 2010
Sunday, May 15, 2011
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Microsoft has released an updated virtual machine for Visual Studio 2010 RTM including TFS, Microsoft Test Manager, all the bits. Also includes sample projects and hands on labs.
The previous version expires June 1st, this one is good until November 1st, 2011.
As usual Brian Keller has all the details including download instructions!
Technorati Tags:
TFS 2010
Monday, April 04, 2011
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If you have a lot of TFS build definitions for your projects, its been a bit of a hassle that there is no way to organize and manage them in Team Explorer other than a long flat list.
Well, the good folks at Inmeta have released the Inmeta Build Explorer tool which displays build definitions in a hierarchy where names use a . notation to delineate the hierarchy.
Since most folks have been implementing a naming standard for builds which at least organize build definitions for ordering, this doesn’t seem like too big a limitation to me.
Jakob Ehn has a good post on it here.
Download the Inmeta Build Explorer from the Visual Studio Gallery today!
Technorati Tags:
TFS,
Build
Friday, April 01, 2011
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I was happy to receive this email today:
Thanks to the great folks at Imaginet and Notion Solutions for all your help and support over the last year.
Also, thanks to the MS Product group for being such a great team to engage with. Looking forward to continued interaction over the coming year.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
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Microsoft released a PILE of Visual Studio goodness today:
Visual Studio 2010 SP1(Including TFS SP1)
Finally done with remembering which GDR packs, KB Patches, etc need to be installed with a new VS/TFS 2010 deployment. Just grab the SP1. It’s available today for MSDN Subscribers and March 10th for public download.
TFS-Project Server Integration Feature Pack
MSDN Subscribers got another little treat today with the TFS-Project Server integration feature pack. We can now get project rollups and portfolio level management with Project Server yet still have the tight developer interaction with TFS. Finally we can make the PMO happy without duplicate entry or MS Project gymnastics.
Visual Studio Load Test Feature Pack
This is a new benefit for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate subscribers. Previously there was a limit to Ultimate Load Testing of 250 virtual users. If you needed more, you had to buy virtual user license packs. No more. Now your Visual Studio Ultimate license allows you to simulate as many virtual users as you need!! This is HUGE in improving adoption of regular load testing for development projects.
All the Details are available from Soma’s blog.
Technorati Tags:
VS2010,
TFS,
Load Test
Saturday, February 26, 2011
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I had fun presenting “What’s new in Entity Framework 4” at the Winnipeg Code Camp today.
I mentioned some resources on my deck that I thought I’d include here in my blog.
•EF 4.0 Hands on Labs
•EF CTP 5 (has the new DbContext and CodeFirst support)
•MSDN Data Developer Center: MSDN.com/Data
•ADO.NET Team Blog
•EF Design Blog
•How to choose an inheritance strategy
Programming Entity Framework, Second Edition by Julia Lerman
Thursday, November 18, 2010
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So, I’ve been attending the ALM Summit Conference this week on Microsoft Campus in Redmond. It was feeling a bit like “Intro to Agile” Conference as we got the 100 Level Agile overview at the start of almost every session.
As a result I tweeted and included the #almsummit hastag
Well, that started a lot of tweets from folks feeling the same way. They also stressed that they wanted more depth, practices, dialogue.
Here’s the impressive thing. Eric Willeke (@erwilleke) who was supposed to present right after lunch was following the twitter hashtag and took proactive action and worked with the conference organizers and they actually CHANGED the agenda and substituted an ALM Dojo session in place of his talk.
Moral of the story, if you a participant in some event are dissatisfied with what’s going on, don’t just silently put up with it. As a conference organizer, learn from the #ALMSummit folks and be prepared to adapt, after all, the conference is for the attendees, not the presenters.
I feel bad that Eric didn’t get to deliver his talk, but feel he did the absolute right thing and deserves TOP marks for ensuring they he added the most value he could to the attendees.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
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Notifications of subsequent publications with Errata fixes.
Got an email this week from O’Reilly stating that an updated version of Julia Lerman’s Programming Entity Framework, Second Edition was available. How sweet is that?
I love that I can carry around a decent sized library of books with me on my iPad. I use it almost exclusively as my reading tool. I only buy ‘print’ books when a electronic version is not available. This latest ‘feature’ of downloading the updated version for FREE is just an added bonus!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
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There goes my weekend 
Microsoft just announced new Power Tool for TFS 2010 which greatly simplifies setting up backups and performing restores. Can’t wait for this new release.
Brian Harry shares all the details on his blog post so I won’t get into all the details here. I will say, however, that this is another GREAT step from the TFS team at Microsoft to simplify the administration and maintenance. The barriers to adoption just keep getting knocked down.
(UPDATE) Brian’s new post indicates that this Power Tool also manages the Sharepoint and reporting databases. Awesome.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
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There is a proposed site for Team Foundation Server Q&A on Stack Exchange Area 51 that could use your help. We need more people to commit to using the site in order to get from Proposed status to full site.
If you see value in having a Stack Exchange location dedicated to TFS Q&A, please go and Commit here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/15894/visual-studio-alm
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
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The final release of the Lab Management functionality in Visual Studio 2010 will be available at the end of August. Lab Management will be available for existing or new Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN and Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 with MSDN customers.
This is great news. If you have the Ultimate or Test Professional with MSDN (which both include the Microsoft Test Manager which has the Lab Management client in it), you can use Visual Studio Lab Management with no extra server or client license.
I’ve been using the RC for awhile and it is definitely a great way to set up and manage test labs.
I encourage you to get more information or download a trial of Lab Management at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ee712698.aspx.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
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Here are the links I promised to post from my session on Visual Studio 2010 Testing Tools.
To download and configure the TFS 2010 Virtual Machine the best instructions are here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/briankel/archive/2010/03/18/now-available-visual-studio-2010-release-candidate-virtual-machines-with-sample-data-and-hands-on-labs.aspx
To download and configure the Lab Management Virtual Machine, the best instructions are here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lab_management/archive/2010/02/12/one-box-lab-management-walkthrough.aspx
Thanks to all that attended my presentation! Hope you learned a bit.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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My online presence has become caffeinatedgeek. As such, I recently had my blog moved from geekswithblogs.net/aaronsblog to geekswithblogs.net/caffeinatedgeek.
Same sporadic but hoepfully valuable posting, just new web home.
Technorati Tags:
caffeinatedgeek